Wetland outings

The past couple of Monday mornings some of us have visited a wetland area just 30 minutes' drive west from Mbale, on the southern border of Budaka district. There is a good bit of papyrus, other reed/grass species, some rice cultivation, and patches of open water with a couple of varieties of lily pads and other types of vegetation that thrive on the surface of the water. Here are some of the birds that we observed on these outings:

* Storks: Openbill, Yellow-billed

* Herons: Purple, Cattle egret, Great white egret, Yellow-billed egret, Hamerkop, Rufous-bellied, Squacco, Little bittern, Grey, Black-headed

* Hadada ibis
* Grey crowned crane

* Black-shouldered kite

* Waders: Black crake, Long-toed lapwings (plovers), Greenshank, African jacana

* Ducks, geese: Spurwing, White-faced whistling duck

* Kingfishers: African pied, Woodland, Malachite

* Swallows: Barn, Wire-tailed

* Doves: African mourning, Blue-spotted wood, Red-eyed

* Blue-headed coucal

* Warblers: Winding cisticola, Greater swamp warbler

* Swamp flycatcher

* Shrikes: Papyrus gonolek (many great views of these fellows, who are not found away from papyrus), Marsh tchagra

* Sunbirds: Red-chested, Copper

* Bronze-tailed starling
* Weavers: Northern brown-throated, Vieillot's black, Slender-billed, Yellow-backed, Black-headed

* Waxbills, etc.: Zebra waxbill (one of the most gorgeous in the family! -- watched them nest-building in the papyrus), Red-cheeked cordon-bleu, Common waxbill, Bronze mannikin

* Fan-tailed widow

In other news, European and Blue-cheeked bee-eaters are regular overhead these days in their southward migration. And we're beginning to have a few African black kites in the neighborhood again, and the small group of Bronze-tailed starlings that we saw while birding in the swamp today are the first I've seen in the area in a while.